Australian garden history : journal of the Australian Garden History Society

HISTORY

Tasmania revisited
Albury conference

Alfred Patterson and a Bathurst park
Lutyens in Australia

JOURNAL OFTHE AUSTRALIAN GARDEN HISTORY SOCIETY

HISTORY

Patrons

John and Lynne Landy

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Jackie Courmadias

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Australian Garden History, the
official journal of the Australian
Garden History Society, is
published five times a year

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GONVENOR
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MEMBERS
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Max Bourke
Glenn Gooke
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David Jones
Anne Latreille
Megan Martin
Prue Slatyer
Ghristopher Vernon

Printing

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ISSN 1033-3673

Cover: The giant Amazon
waterlily (Victoria amazonica),
depicted by botanical artist
Walter Fitch in the stupendous
book Victoria Regia (1851), now
on display at Adelaide Botanic
Garden [courtesy Botanic
Gardens of Adelaide ] — see story
on page 2 1

NATIONAL MANAGEMENT
COMMITTEE

Chair

Colleen Morris

Vice-Chair

John Dwyer

Secretary

Sarah Lucas

Treasurer

Malcolm Paul

Elected Members

Trisha Dixon
John Dwyer
Malcolm Paul
Sarah Lucas
Colleen Morris
Christine Reid
John Viska
Lynne Walker

State Representatives

Keith Jorgensen QLD
John DwyerVIC
Wendy Joyner SA
Ivan Saltmarsh TAS
Jill Scheetz ACT
Chris Webb NSW
In rotation WA

BRANCH CONTACTS

ACT/Monaro/Riverina

Tony Byrne
PO Box 4055
Manuka ACT 2603
tonybyrne@effect.net.au

Queensland

Keith Jorgensen
1 4 Petri na St

Eight Mile Plains QLD 41 13
Phone: 07 3341 3933
jorgenkg@picknowl.com.au

South Australia

Wendy Joyner
PO Box 7
Mannum SA 5238
08 8569 I 197

Contents

Southern Highlands

Chris Webb
PO Box 707
Moss Vale NSW 2577
Phone: 02 486 1 4899
cwebb@cwebb.com.au

Tasmania revisited

GAIL DOUGLASS AND TRISHA DIXON 3

Albury: cultivating a city in the country

BRUCE PENNAY 6

Sydney & Northern NSW

Stuart Read

Phone: 9873 8554 (w)

stu art. read@h e r itage . n sw.gov. au

Alfred Patterson

and Bathurst’s Machattie park

SPENCER HARVEY

11

Tasmania

Ivan Saltmarsh
125 Channel Rd
TaroonaTAS 7053
Phone: 03 6227 8515
ivanof@bigpond.com

‘Return to Lutyens’: Florence Taylor and
the folly of architecture

RICHARD AITKEN 15

For the bookshelf 1 8

Victoria

Pamela jellie
5 Claremont Gres
CanterburyVIC3l26
pdjellie@hotmail.com

Western Australia

Sue Monger
9 Rosser Street
Cottesloe WA 60 1 I
susanmonger@yahoo.com.au

Jottanda

21

Diary dates

22

Conference review

MAX BOURKE

23

The lake at the entrance to the garden Is a tranquil haven at Woomargama
Station, home of Margaret Darling former chair and former patron of the Society.

Photo: Brian Voce

Tasmania revisited

Gail Douglass and Trisha Dixon

The opportunity to join another trip to Tasmania — and to be led by Trisha Dixon
and Jackie Courmadias — is one many AGHS members would not miss, regardless
of how many times we have visited this beautiful isle.

Interwoven during our tour of significant gardens
were the artist John Glover’s landscapes and
naturalist Louisa Meredith’s influence on botanical
art in Tasmania. It was, therefore, with great
anticipation that we all met earlier this year in
Launceston to renew old friendships and to begin
new ones.

The first part of our tour took us to Mole
Creek and Chudleigh where we visited Bentley,
the home of Robyn Hawkins, president of the
Society’s Tasmanian Branch. After purchasing in
2003, Robyn and John Hawkins immediately set
about restoring the single-storey villa (r.I879) and
surrounds. The natural valley setting has many
vistas, including to the majestic Great Western
Tiers. The landscape surrounding the homestead
is one of planned simplicity. Original stands of
Quercus and Tilia have been carefully augmented
with carefully placed trees. The expanses of
grasslands are surrounded by magnificent dry
stone walls and a perimeter of layered Hawthorn
hedges. The two lakes have been enlarged to
attract water birds and the outer areas have been
developed with plants indigenous to the area.

A short drive away was Wychwood, originally a
bare one-hectare paddock which Karen Hall and
Peter Cooper have transformed over 14 years into
a garden that features sweeping lawns, rose and
perennial borders, grasses, fruit trees, and many
other drought and frost resistant plants. Clever use
of large-leafed privet hedging creates rooms, and
also swirls and twists ending in a blue gravel shape
with centrally placed a sculpture. In the creek
paddock is a medieval grass labyrinth, beautiful
when viewed from above.

Close by is Old Wesleydale, significant for its early
Georgian homestead and outbuildings (1836).

Deb and Scott Wilson have owned it for 6 years
and have brought the garden — ^including a ha ha
and amazing Lonicera elephant hedge — back to
life. Of great interest also were their vegetable
beds and the large cages full of Macau birds which
Scott is breeding.

The Mecca of most AGHS members and other
privileged gardeners is Fairie Nielson’s Pigeon
Hill near Burnie which she began 60 years ago.
Pigeon Hill enjoys a maritime climate with rich
chocolate soil, but this was a disadvantage in the

Striking hedges of Cupressus macrocrpo partially enclose Annabel Scott’s garden at Dunedin and provide It with protection from prevailing winds.

Australian Garden History V0I.19 N0.3 Nov/Dec 2007/Jan 2008

3

early years with weeds and noxious plants covering
the property. Fairie cleared the hills and gullies
lowering herself down by rope secured from
above! What she has created is inspirational. The
magnificent mature plantings of trees, conifers,
rhododendrons, and shrubs give constant pleasure
to their creator and the many fortunate visitors.

Emu Valley Rhododendron Gardens was started
in 1985 by North Tasmania Branch members
of the Australian Rhododendron Society. Fairie
Nielson was a founding member and still works
in the gardens several times a week. The 13 ha
garden is a natural amphitheatre with over 20,000
plants. Hybrid and species rhododendrons and
their companions are in geographical arrangement
representing the origins of these species from Asia
Minor across through to Himalayas and on to
China, Japan, and North America.

Susan Irvine is one of Australia’s noted gardeners
and her collection of roses is legendary. Twelve
years ago Susan and Bill Irvine, on a fishing trip to
Tasmania, drove past the fine old Georgian House,
Forest Hall, with a for sale sign up — the rest is
history! Susan’s passion and knowledge of roses
is remarkable and to see them together with the
fine old oaks, mulberry, hollies, and Amelanchier^
mingling with peonies and perennials is a treat.

Gothic revival Dunedin sits in the centre of the
10,000 ha property with an immaculate Cupressus
macrocarpa hedge that once a year takes two
hedge-cutters an entire week to clip. The garden
is the creation of Annabel Scott, a passionate and
intelligent gardener. Her garden is a treasure trove
of fascinating plants intermingled with her much
loved favourites in wonderful colour schemes.

The convict- built home and outbuildings of
Strathmore date back to 1826. A feature of the
property is the lake which is joined to the Nile

Beautiful, sculptural benches, made by Peter Adams, are In carefully
chosen positions along the walks at Windgrove.

Getting the perfect shot - Craig Burton captures the view over the
old parterre garden at Summerhome.

River by a mill race. Sue and Gordon Gillon
have brought the garden to life since moving to
Strathmore in 1993. The walled garden is a fine
example reminiscent of those built on large estates
in Ireland and is one of three in Tasmania that was
heated, the fireplace still evident on the rear side.

Through the Deddington Valley where John
Glover lived and painted we come to Uplands
the home of Georgie and Hamish Wallace. An
elegantly designed garden with central courtyard
and wonderful herbaceous borders, Georgie
batdes the elements and hungry wildlife (including
deer). There are stunning views from the garden
across to Stack’s Bluff and the Ben Lomond range.

On our way to Hobart we visited Cambria
(1836), once home of eminent naturalist, author,
and illustrator Louisa Meredith. Overlooking the
Meredith River, the garden is one of Tasmania’s
earliest and retains its circular box hedge and
stately araucarias.

On the slopes of Mount Wellington is Canning,
home and garden of Naomi Canning. Her home
and part of her garden were burnt in the 1967
fires but many trees survived. This tragedy gave
rise to a new home, sited higher for views of the
Derwent River and to have the home flow into the
garden by use of existing boulders and reflecting
pools designed by her son Torquil. Naomi’s

4

Australian Garden History V0I.19 N0.3 Nov/Dec 2007/Jan 2008

garden has a wonderful collection of trees and
plants in particular Nothafa^us species and others
indigenous to Tasmania.

Further along the slopes we visited Sally
Johannsohn, well known for her rare plants
nursery. Sally has created a quirky exuberant
garden combining her intense love of plants with
that of design and creative wood sculpture. Her
wonderful water spiral sprinklers throw sprays in
glistening spiral patterns.

A morning ramble in Richmond was enjoyed en
route to Marlbrook (1840) at Pontville, garden
of Mary and Richard Darcy. Sadly fine old stables,
barns, and granaries were destroyed in the 1967
fires. The central garden design reflects the simple
symmetry of the house with four segments defined
by box hedging and Coprosma ‘Karo Red’ which
makes an excellent hedge.

Special viewings were arranged to view Louisa
Meredith and John Glover’s paintings at the
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. We were
also very fortunate on our visit to Government
House and to have its head gardener conduct our
tour. The gardens have changed very little from
the original plans. Formal lawns set off the house
while informal winding paths lead through the
woodland setting of a romantic lake made where
the stone for the house was quarried.

Summerhome is an excellent example of an intact
early Victorian garden. It was built at Moonah
(now a suburb of Hobart) as a rural summer
retreat. Of particular importance is the huge
parterre and original glass house with grapevines
planted outside and an opening for the trunks to
grow inside in the protected microclimate. The
plantings are very interesting, being a fine example
of the Victorian gardenesque style.

Windgrove presented a total contrast to the other
visits. The site at Roaring Beach on the Tasman

Fo/r/e Nielsen, gardener extraordinaire, who delights all with her
fortitude and her tales of gardening a challenging site.

At Marlbrook Mary Darcy designed the garden around the central
axis between the entrance gate and front door.

Peninsula was originally cleared for a sheep
farm and had become very degraded, but with
careful management all the natural vegetation is
returning. Peter Adams has created a living entity,
and placed his sculptures and wooden benches
along a natural pathway that allow visitors to
meditate or focus their attention to the differing
landscapes. He has planted thousands of local
trees and shrubs believing that the trend towards
natural gardening and blending into the landscape
will remain part of future gardening.

The owners of Corinda, Wilmar Bouman and
Matthew Ryan, have restored their stately
Victorian home and recreated a classic garden
including pleached linden trees, box parterres, and
yew hedges enclosing different colour schemes.

As we headed back to Launceston we enjoyed a
visit to the historic township of Ross with its fine
Georgian cottages and bridge.

Our final visit was to Beaufront (1837) a 10,000
ha fine merino wool property which has been
in the Von Bibra family since 1914. The careful
positioning of the house on a knoll emphasises
vistas of the rolling countryside, carefully
separating the pleasure garden from the utilitarian
vegetable and picking garden. We experienced the
incredible richness and diversity of Tasmania and
its gardens, and enjoyed generosity and hospitality
from the very special owners and custodians of this
unique heritage.

Gail Douglass gardens at Stratford House at
Tahmoor in the Southern Highlands of New
South Wales. Trisha Dixon is well-known as a
photographer, writer, and broadcaster, and her
latest book — Under the Spell of the A^es: Australian
country gardens — has just been published by the
National Library of Australia.

Australian Garden History V0I.19 N0.3 Nov/Dec 2007/Jan 2008

5

Albury

cultivating a city in the country

Bruce Pennay

An inland settlement, Albury grew into a municipality a regional city and a growth centre
within a rural context. As host city for Australian Garden History Society’s 28th annual
national conference, we look at the history of Albury’s regional landscape.

Aboriginal occupation

Dense and sedentary Aboriginal populations
lived along the Murray River. They had in the
riverine environment a rich source of fish, game,
and plants. As a result, there was litde need to
move from its banks. The river itself probably
united rather than divided groups and it seems
to have been one long river-system, rather than
a collection of separate tribal valleys. There was a
great deal of exchange along it. People speaking
languages such as Bangerang, Dhuudhuroa, Kwat
Kwat, and Wiradjuri lived as several groupings
in the upper sections of the river. Each clustered
within the main river valley itself and/or in the
valley of a tributary, such as the Ovens or Broken
Rivers. Two kinds of river place seem to have
attracted Aboriginal peoples: river junctions and
river shallows. Artefacts suggest that junctions
were major industrial areas while fishing was
comparatively easy in the shallows.

Crossing place

White explorers Hamilton Hume and Captain
William Hovell discovered the Murray River and
signs of the people who lived there in November
1824. They named the river the Hume and
inscribed trees on the northern riverbank, where
they first approached what seemed to be a natural
ford. Because the river was running swiftly, they
had difficulty in making a crossing and eventually
found a way across the river near the site of the
present-day Hume Dam.

Pushed by a drought to find pasture and water in
the mid- 18 30s, several overlanders made their way
south to the crossing Hume and Hovell had first
tried to use. In 1835 or shordy thereafter, runs
were established at Mungabareena on the north
bank of the Murray, at Wodonga (or Woodonga)
on the south bank of the Murray opposite
Mungabareena, and at Bonegilla, to the east of
Wodonga, between the Murray, Kiewa, and Mitta
Mitta Rivers.

There was, however, an abrupt halt to the growing
movement of livestock south in 1838, when for
a period of two or three months, there were
raids, reprisals, and open warfare between blacks
and whites. Governor Gipps moved to meet the
resistance and to quell the violence by establishing
a Border Police unit and a Native Police unit. He
also established ‘regular halting places or posts
of protection’ at the principal crossings between
Sydney and the Port Phillip district — at the
Murrumbidgee, Murray, Ovens, and Goulburn
Rivers, and at Violet Creek. Towns were founded
at these posts, as part of an overall military
strategy to make safe the route to Port Phillip
and to settle the inland districts. The Government
dispatched surveyors to select town sites, including
one that might be built at the Murray River
crossing place, where the enterprising Robert
Brown had established a store. ^

Governor Gipps ... established
^repfular halting plaees or posts
of proteetion^ at the prineipal
erossinpfs between Sydney and the
Port Phillip distriet

Lady Jane Franklin, on her daring journey
overland from Port Phillip to Sydney in 1839,
left signs of her visit behind her. In a letter to
Sir John in April from the crossing place that
was to become Albury, she told how she had
brought a packet of clover seed on her journey
‘for the express purpose of . . . disseminating
pastures along the travellers’ track’. She sowed
seed of white clover ( Trifolium repens) in the
trench dug around their tent to carry off the rain.
Throughout the rest of her journey Lady Franklin
was to sow her seeds wherever she stopped. By
1860 the white clover — now regarded as an
environmental weed — had spread luxuriantly.^

6

Australian Garden History V0I.19 N0.3 Nov/Dec 2007/Jan 2008

Rural township

Albury — and Belvoir on the southern side of
the Murray — grew and prospered in the 1850s,
servicing not only passing travellers but a growing
number of settlers. The discovery of gold at the
nearby Beechworth and the Indigo gold fields
boosted development, and the demand for meat,
hay, foodstuffs such as potatoes, flour, and grapes.

In 1856 the New South Wales Government
agreed to build a bridge across the Murray, as
part of a number of improvements along the
length of the Great Southern Road that linked it
with its gold-rich neighbour, the newly separated
colony of Victoria. The young Henry Parkes saw
the significance of the bridge at Albury making
the link between the old and new colonies. He
predicted that the capital of a federal union of
the colonies might be sited at the Murray River
crossing place to prevent jealousy between the
two.^ The aptly named Union Bridge was opened
in 1861 in what Albury folk proudly called the
Federal City.

James Fallon, an enterprising general store
proprietor, prospered supplying the goldfields.
About 1864, he became a principal in establishing
steamboat connection with the Echuca railhead
and Melbourne market. He began to focus on
the wine trade and acquired the Murray Valley
Vineyard, building large cellars in central Albury.

Fallon was important in creating a proud self-
image — for him Albury was ‘the garden of the
colonies for the cultivation of wine’. Yet the
Albury wineries suffered with onerous colonial
border customs duties and soon after, phylloxera.
When the Victorian government sponsored vine
planting and cultivation in the early 1890s and
production across the river in the North East,
Victoria boomed.^

Railways, wool, wheat, and federation

The railway from Melbourne to Belvoir (renamed
Wodonga in 1873) tapped the Riverina trade and
succeeded in pulling wool to the southern capital.
New South Wales was concerned about the loss of
trade and pushed its own railway system to Albury
in 1881. In 1883, the two railways were connected
but not joined as they were built to different
gauges. Despite this, the railway connection
was perceived as marking a turning point in the
movement towards Eederation. Through the 1880s
and 1890s railway tariffs and branch lines also
helped establish the Riverina as a wheat growing
area and Sydney as its principal port.

In 1889, the police magistrate and mining warden,
Thomas Browne, with his wife Margaret and
their children, took up residence in 642 Olive
Street, Albury. Writing under the pseudonym
of ‘Rolf Boldrewood’, Browne had published
several novels in serial form during the 1870s

‘Broad St, Sydney Rd., Albury, N.S.W.' (1 89 1): a charming If slightly naive view of early cottage landholdings on the fringe of the town, evocatively
capturing the hilly setting beyond the river fats of the Murray.

Australian Garden History V0I.19 N0.3 Nov/Dec 2007/Jan 2008

7

National Library of Australia (pic-an2293206)

and his latest, Robbery Under Arms^ published
as he arrived, was a marked success. In 1893
Margaret Browne published The Flower Garden
in Australia: a book for ladies and amateurs
in Melbourne under the pseudonym ‘Mrs Rolf
Boldrewood’. Claimed as the first gardening book
written by an Australian woman, it extolled the
virtues of gardening as a meaningful and delightful
recreation for country women. ^ The Olive Street
house the Brownes rented was in a ‘rising part of
the town’, hailed as Albury’s Hyde Park. A near
neighbour, Samuel Mudge, had planted Albury’s
first street tree outside his house at 616 Olive
Street in 1875.

Albury Botanic Gardens were established in 1877
and a horticultural society began in 1886, the
same year reticulated water supply was ‘turned
on’. Margaret Browne entered the local show
competitions, winning prizes for her pot plants
and hyacinths. As well as gentling her domestic
space, Margaret Browne’s cultivated garden lent
to the gentrification of the area and the town. Her
husband meanwhile lent his support to the town’s
federal capital ambitions, hailing Albury as the
‘Washington’ of Australia.

Albury the Coming City

Drought at the beginning of the twentieth
century forced governments to give attention to
the river. In 1914, the Commonwealth offered
firm funding proposals to establish storage on
the river, principally between Cumberoona and
Ebden, just north of Albury and Wodonga. The
River Murray Agreement of 1915 established
the River Murray Commission, and work began
on constructing the Hume Weir in 1919. The
building of the weir was a massive project and
involved a large workforce. This large-scale
project was frequently compared with other big
national and world projects. Locally the beauty of
the lake formed behind the new storage was also
celebrated in poetry and in song.^

The taming of the Murray helped with the
creation of riverside parks in Albury itself. The
parks had been suggested by Charles Reade, a
visiting town planner in 1915. Reade had also
suggested that council acquire Western Hill for
the creation of a war memorial on alignment with
the main street. In 1925 the new war memorial
was bathed in floodlight by night, within sight
not only of townspeople but also of those in
the adjacent rural areas who did not have access

Albury’s botanic garden and Its riverside parks on the banks of the Murray River began to assume formal shape by 1 888 when this
lithographed bird’s-eye view was published as a supplement to the local Border Post newspaper.

Australian Garden History V0I.19 N0.3 Nov/Dec 2007/Jan 2008

to electricity. Boosters claimed Albury was
growing city-like in appearance. Albury was ‘on
the threshold of citydom’ — ^it was ‘the city of
tomorrow’, ‘a coming city’.^

Garrison towns

Situated at the break of railway gauge, Albury and
Wodonga became a place of strategic importance
during the Second World War. Defence personnel
expanded the Wirlinga explosives and ammunition
depot, installed a massive ordnance depot and
vehicle park at Bandiana, and a large military camp
and army hospital at Bonegilla. Altogether there
were about 11,000 defence personnel stationed
in the district. They required a steady supply of
locally produced fruit, vegetables, eggs, milk, ice
cream, meat, firewood. Many businesses in Albury
and Wodonga had a good war. Yet a series of
dry summers made the war years hard for local
farmers and pastoralists. Townspeople did their
best to promote war effort. They joined the dig
for peace campaign with vegetable patches and
the well-to-do raised funds for patriotic purposes
with fashionable garden parties at Olive Street
residences. At the end of the war Bandiana
continued, indeed expanded as an ordnance
depot and vehicle park, while Bonegilla became a
migrant reception centre (1947-71).

Postwar city

Just before the Bonegilla Migrant Centre
opened, Albury, along with seven other large
country municipalities in New South Wales, was
declared a city. This rush of city declarations was
part of a revitalisation of local government. The
postwar years were to be the heyday of large
country towns.

Lanes became streets^ paddocks
became reservesy streets developed
well-kept verpies

Houses and their gardens expressed something of
the urban character of the new city. The firmest
indication of the city’s achievement, citizens were
told, was to be found in the built and cultivated
environment, especially its ‘sturdy garden- girt
homes’. Lanes became streets, paddocks became
reserves, streets developed well-kept verges.
Competitions brought public notice to the most
diligent gardeners, and had special awards for
those who had built only in the last two years and
for those who lived in a Housing Commission
cottage. The fifties saw the emergence of the
culture of home and garden. Albury took on the
appearance and character of a remote suburb of a
metropolitan centre.^

Greening the National Growth Centre

The new Whitiam Government (1972) launched
a number of urban and regional development
projects, including a growth centre strategy.

The Albury- Wodonga National Growth Centre
project was to become its iconic decentralisation
project, set to ‘attract population and economic
activity away from the major metropolitan areas,
particularly Sydney and Melbourne, in order
to alleviate the undesirable pressures on these
cities’. Subsequent governments cut funding and
population targets were never reached. Yet critics
seem to ignore the achievements of the Albury-
Wodonga Development Corporation, in particular
how it addressed environmental issues related, for
example, to the river, parklands, and residential
estates. In cultivating a city in the country, the
Development Corporation had a green thumb.

In cultivating a city in the
country^ the Development
Corporation had a pfreen thumb

At the beginnings of the project, the planners
drew up protective strategies to preserve the
natural environment and moved quickly to
establish an environmental laboratory to keep a
check on the water quality of the Murray River.
During the 1980s new conservation policies
related to the Murray River appeared at the
national level and governments agreed to take a
broader approach to the river system itself and
established a Murray-Darling Basin Commission.

The Development Corporation established
Carramar Nursery to propagate trees and shrubs
for the Development Corporation’s use and
established an energetic forward tree-planting
program. Under its superintendent, Harry Jakobs,
Carramar Nursery produced trees and shrubs
for planting in urban and non-urban areas. It
propagated 150,000 plants each year, almost all
indigenous. These trees and shrubs were planted
in each residential and industrial estate well
ahead of the release date, so that there would be
established growth from the outset. A further
free issue of 40 shrubs and 10 trees was made to
each landowner. In 1978 alone. Development
Corporation staff planted 38,000 trees and shrubs
in urban areas, and 100,000 in greenfield settings
at Thurgoona and Baranduda. They landscaped
125 detached houses, using 5,000 advanced trees
and shrubs and sowed 90,000 square metres of
grass. Consultants Margules and Deverson set
guidelines for a forward tree-planting program in
1977. The Development Corporation had been
planting trees at the rate of just over 68,500 each

Australian Garden History V0I.19 N0.3 Nov/Dec 2007/Jan 2008

9

year for 13 years. By 1988, it had produced 1.25
million trees at an average cost of $2 each.^

Less land was needed for development when the
population target was lowered in 1976 and again
in 1989. In 1985 the Victorian Land Conservation
Council recommended that nearly half the land
surplus to the needs of the Growth Centre should
be retained for farming, about one quarter should
be converted into regional parks, and another
quarter into regeneration areas.

The Development Corporation
elustered its housing into newly
developed estates ... rural values
pervaded the promotional imagery

The Development Corporation launched a bold
Regional Parklands strategy that provided a
twenty-year strategy for the development of an
open space system in which hills and streams
would be integrated. It gave particular emphasis
to the reafforestation of the major surrounding
hills to set the landscape character of the city. It
looked to the development of town parks, riverine
parks, and wilderness parks. It sought to retain
the character of the Kiewa River floodplain and
conserve the Murray River floodplain downstream
from Lake Hume to central Albury. It made
provision for recreational uses in a variety of inter-
connected parklands.^®

The Development Corporation clustered its
housing into newly developed estates. This
was to be a ‘City in the Country’ and rural
values pervaded the promotional imagery. The

Development Corporation estates were designated
as park, wood, green, hill, rise, and heights. The
new roads took the form and names of crescents,
drives, ways, circuits, views, closes, places, and
even mews. The names of estates and subdivisions
made picturesque allusions to farm, village, and
rural values.

One of the most important roles of the
Development Corporation was the manufacturing
and selling of the image of Albury- Wodonga.

In alerting the nation to the potential of the
‘National Growth Centre’, it portrayed Albury-
Wodonga as a place with unusual vitality, one that
had an unusual respect for environmental values.
Albury-Wodonga was a brand name that won
national recognition and carried, in the main,
positive overtones.

Beyond Growth Centre

Albury-Wodonga was well sited, planned, and
managed. The basis was laid, in the growth
centre years, for an enlarged and economically
viable inland city in which there were pleasant
neighbourhoods set within a surrounding area
that demonstrated an unusually high respect for
environmental values. From a local vantage point,
at least, it seems that in spite of the prevailing
orthodoxy, Australia’s only major attempt at
selective decentralisation was worth the effort.

Bruce Pennay is a historian and heritage consultant
specialising in Australian regional history. He is
an honorary adjunct associate professor in the
School of Environmental Sciences at Charles Sturt
University.

1. T.F. Bride (ed.), Letters from Victorian Pioneers^
Heinemann, Melbourne, 1898; A. Andrews, The First
Settlement of the Upper Murray, 1835-1845, D.S.

Ford, Sydney, 1920, pp. 31-32, 63-64. Colonial
Secretary: correspondence from Surveyor-General’s
office 4/2476.1, particularly 38/2600 and associated
correspondence at 38/248 and 39/263. Related matters
at 4/2475, NSW Colonial Secretary, Port Phillip

1838 4/2423.3, State Records, Sydney. M.F. Christie,
Aborigines in Colonial Victoria, 1853-86, Sydney
University Press, Sydney, 1979.

2. P Russell (ed.). This Errant Lady: Jane Franklin’s
overland journey to Port Phillip and Sydney, 1839,
National Library of Australia, Canberra, 2002, pp.47-
56; J. Dwyer, ‘Weeds in the Victorian Colonial Garden,
1800-1860’, Studies in Australian Garden History, 2,
2006, pp.3-4.

3. Bruce Pennay, ‘Albury the Federal City, 1856-1908’,

The New Federalist, 3, June 1999.

4. Border Post, 22 September 1869; Sydney Morning
Herald, 25 November 1871. David Pope, ‘Viticulture
and phylloxera in north east Victoria, 1880-1915’,

Australian Economic History Review, 10 (1), March
1971.

5. Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol.3, 1969,
pp.267-69; Border Post, 7 March 1890. Mrs Rolf
Boldrewood, The Flower Garden in Australia (1893),
reprinted edition, Mulini Press, Canberrra, 1995; D.H.R.
Spennemann, ‘Mrs Rolf Boldrewood’s The Flower
Garden in Australia’, Margin, 53, April 2001.

6. Border Morning Mail, 23 November 1936, 23 February
1940.

7. Ibid., 10 June and 4 September 1937, 29 August 1938.

8. Border Morning Mail, 23 December 1946, 5 April 1947,
12 October 1949, 6 April and 19 October 1950.

9. tirm Cftirr Porr, 5 June 1980. Albury Wodonga
Development Corporation, Annual Report, 1978.

Border Morning Mail, 25 June 1988.

10. Land Conservation Council (Victoria), Final
Recommendations: North-Eastern Area (Benalla-Upper
Murray Review), Melbourne, January 1986. A. Grant
& K Burnham, ‘Albury-Wodonga Regional Open Space
Assessment’, Australian Parks and Recreation, 21 (4), 1985.

10

Australian Garden History V0I.19 N0.3 Nov/Dec 2007/Jan 2008

Alfred Patterson
and Bathurst’s Machattie Park

Spencer Harvey

Bathurst’s Machattie Park, named for local medico Richard Machattie (181 3-1876), was
established in 1 890. As its inaugural head gardener; Andrew Patterson was in a strong position

to influence its early development.

Early career at Cook Park, Orange

Alfred Andrew Patterson (r. 1857-1932) was
born in Drottningholm, Sweden, and following
study at Upsala University lectured at Hamburg
University. His field of study is not known, but
it seems reasonable to assume either surveying
or botany. He then worked in England before
migrating to Tasmania, where he was employed
during the 1880s as a surveyor on the Mount
Bischoff railway. Following botanical research in
Queensland, he was engaged as survey or/engineer
for the Nyngan-Byrock railway in New South
Wales. Whilst here he enlisted for the Sudan War
(1885), but en route to Sydney was taken from
the train at Orange suffering typhoid fever. He

was subsequently employed by James Dalton,
MLA for Orange, owner of the large properties
Kangaroobie and Duntryleague.^

When Cook Park, Orange, was opened in 1887,
through Dalton’s influence Patterson gained
the position of inaugural head gardener. In early
1890 a deputation from local worthies from
Bathurst visited Orange — ostensibly to examine
the gravitational water supply scheme. At Cook
Park they met Patterson, mentioning that Bathurst
council was seeking a head gardener to lay out the
new Machattie Park and that a competition was
being held to find a design for the park. Patterson
decided to offer a design, and later applied for the
position of head gardener.^

This bird’s-eye
view by ‘Progress’

(pseudonym for Bathurst

architect James Nine) for

the design of Machattie Park

was awarded frst prize in 1890:

the layout was subsequently adapted by

inaugural head gardener Alfred Patterson as

he commenced to lay out the park.

Australian Garden History V0I.19 N0.3 Nov/Dec 2007/Jan 2008

11

Bathurst District Historical Society

Head Gardener of Machattie Park,
Bathurst

Patterson was duly appointed (from six applicants)
in April 1890 as head gardener of Bathurst’s
Machattie Park, at a salary of £2 10s per week
with a residence. The choice caused some disquiet
amongst Orange aldermen — the mayor hinted
darkly that the recent visit of Bathurst council was
‘for the purpose of inducing Mr Patterson to leave
Orange’. It seems, however, that Patterson had
displayed sufficient talent during his three -year
tenure at Cook Park to attract admiration within
regional horticultural circles. The Bathurst Times
reported that Patterson had indicated he would
prefer the change of situation, perhaps hastened
by the claim that Orange council had removed an
assistant, ‘which necessarily threw more work on
the head gardener, who resented their action’.^

The design competition for Machattie Park was
won by Bathurst architect James Hine, with
Patterson gaining second place. Patterson’s
appointment as head gardener, however, meant
he had the task of implementing Mine’s design,
sowing the seeds of future problems. Hine was
also given the task of designing and building
the cottage, fernery, and band rotunda, while
Patterson was to layout the park — paths, lawns,
flower beds, tree plantings, and fernery interior.
Patterson was faced with a huge task and with
council approval he made several changes to
Mine’s plan — resiting the fernery, reshaping
the pond to form a reverse ‘S’ (but not to
commemorate the work of Dr Spencer, as Bathurst
folk lore has maintained), repositioning the great

fountain, and altering the lines of some paths.
Faced with this mammoth task Patterson sought
council sanction ‘to lock up Machattie Park for the
next four months . . . The Park in its present state is
unfit for any ladies or children to be walking in.’^

In June 1890 Patterson wrote to council seeking
permission ‘to engage a practical gardener’s
assistant at £2 2s per week.’^ Henry Lynch was
appointed and this very profitable partnership
continued until 1907 when Patterson resigned to
become the first Shire Engineer for Turon Shire.
The two were of quite different personalities —
Patterson, professionally trained, strong minded
(even irascible), interested in politics and friend
of politicians (Sir Henry Parkes and Sir George
Reid are mentioned in his obituary), ready to
defend his name at the slightest provocation, and
an accomplished landscape gardener: Lynch, a
career gardener, a humble, gentle man incapable
of making enemies, a dedicated churchgoer and
master bell ringer at All Saints Cathedral, a much-
sought floral judge, and one who did not seek the
limelight. It was a great partnership of different
but strangely compatible personalities.^

Developing Machattie Park

Both Cook Park and Machattie Park were
located on difficult sites. Cook Park was located
on a swamp and Machattie Park on the site
of the old gaol, ‘a wilderness of deformed
trees and thousands of tons of stones, bricks
and mortar’. Both gardens were designed in
the prevailing Victorian style, with wide paths
suited to promenading, sweeping lawns, exotic
specimen trees, shrubberies, a lake, and specialised

Lake Spencer, and constructed In 1 890 and named for local doctor and park promoter William Walter Spencer, is one of Machattie Park’s
earliest and most striking features providing an irresistible lure for younger visitors.

12

Australian Garden History V0I.19 N0.3 Nov/Dec 2007/Jan 2008

Bathurst District Historical Society

The marble statues In Machattle Park’s fernery — representing La Priglonlera A’More (Prisoner of Love), Dispaccio D'Amore (Messenger of
Love), and Psyche (the butterfy-winged muse of Cupid) — have been much-loved features since their Installation In 1901.

horticultural environments (such as the fernery).
The cumulative effect upon the visitor was a sense
of beauty and grandeur. Both parks were also
symbols of civic pride. ^

Preparations for the official opening in December
1890 were frantic. The fernery was a huge task
and in August Patterson was given permission to
travel to the Blue Mountains to collect ferns and
bush rock.^ The Progress Association provided
£30 for a fountain in the fernery (obtained
from Messrs Lassetter & Co.) and in November
Patterson reported that he had finished excavation
of the lake and had ‘put down 40 loads of granite
in the same and have started filling it with water.

When the Great Fountain was officially opened
on 24 December 1891, the water flowed via
an underground pipe to the lake and a further
pipe took the overflow into George Street and
eventually it found its way back to Jordan Creek.
One of Patterson’s greatest contributions was to
harness this flow of 4000 gallons an hour into an
irrigation scheme. Channels (eighteen inches deep)
were cut in different directions, two-thirds filled
with rubble, covered with pine branches and other
clippings (as temporary packing), on which was
placed the turf. Water was let into the drains by
means of siphons capable of lifting 1000 gallons
an hour each. It then percolated through the
stones, filled the drains, and soaked the ground.

Sluice boxes controlled the flow water, which
provided deep watering.

During 1899 Patterson commenced removing
Monterey pines {Pinus radiata)^ planted for
screening the earlier gaol reserve boundaries.

He replanted with Huntingdon elms ( Ulmus x
hollandica var. ‘Vegeta’), although in timeless
fashion, the felling of the mature trees provoked
local anger. Patterson wisely took the precaution
of undertaking the work in a staged programme.

Patterson’s career blossoms

Patterson undertook duties well beyond the
confines of Machattie Park. In 1895 Bathurst
Bowling Club was formed and on leased land
adjacent to the Council Chambers Patterson was
given the task of developing the bowling green.

In 1899 he addressed a horticultural conference at
Bathurst Technical College on ‘Grafting, Pruning,
Budding and Hybridization’.^^ During 1900-01
Patterson was seconded by the New South Wales
Government to organise floral displays for the
Federation celebrations in Centennial Park,

Sydney and the arrival of the Duke and Duchess
of York (the future King and Queen), surely a
proud moment in his career. His reputation as
a gardener also flourished throughout the NSW
Central West with his regular gardening column in
the Bathurst Daily Times. These monthly articles

Australian Garden History V0I.19 N0.3 Nov/Dec 2007/Jan 2008

13

Bathurst District Historical Society

had a regional focus on that portion of New
South Wales, defined by Patterson as ‘Relative
to the Western District between Mount Victoria
and Dubbo and intermediate Country’. Severe
drought in 1902 underpinned his early advice, and
when things worsened in 1903, Patterson called
on the state government to institute a massive
irrigation scheme, with dams, which would
provide irrigation from Bathurst to Warren. He
concluded in February that year:

Mr Editor ... it is simply a farce to advise people
what to do when they have not the opportunity
or means (in the way of moisture and water)
to earry out sueh adviee. When the season has
ehan^ed, and after rain has fallen, or when
a lar^e national system of irripfation has been
aeeomplished throughout the western distriet,
and when people will be able to aet on the adviee
pfiven, then — if I am amonpf the living — I shall be
pleased to eontinue my notes on pjardeninpf}^

In late 1904 a small plaque — inscribed ‘Alfred
Andrew Patterson / Machattie Park / His
Design - His Memorial’ — appeared on the gate
at the corner of George and Keppel Streets. The
originator of this plaque is not officially recorded,
but it appears highly likely that it was Patterson
himself. Incensed, Aldermen Absalom Gartrell
wrote a long letter to the National Advoeate
advancing the claims of the prize-winner Hine.
Patterson strongly defended himself, having the
last word: ‘1 can assure Mr Gartrell that when he
and 1 have passed away to that unknown region
beyond, and from which none of us will return,
that my name will still be known as the designer of
the only Machattie Park in the Commonwealth.’^^

From Drottningholm to Demondrille

In 1904 Patterson was appointed to the dual

positions of Superintendent of Works as well as
Head Gardener for Bathurst Municipal Council.
When he accepted the position of Engineer for
Turon Shire Council in 1907 there was a move
by some Aldermen for him to hold both positions
although his nemesis, Alderman Gartrell, led a
‘One Man, One Billet’ campaign to prevent this.
However, Patterson’s high regard was recognised
in a testimonial and ‘purse of sovereigns’, with
Mayor E. T. Webb praising the man who ‘had
made Machattie Park the beauty spot it was at
present’.

In his new position, Patterson took an even
greater interest in civic affairs. In 1908 he became
treasurer of Bathurst District Irrigation and
Closer Setdement League and was instrumental
in the development of weirs at White Rock and
on the Campbell’s River. It is at this time that
it is believed that he developed the orchard at
Fortuna (where the present Kelso High School
stands). However, his feisty nature led him into
numerous disputes with Councillors and in 1912,
he was involved in a well publicised dispute
with Councillor Sullivan over an entry in the
procession for the Municipal Council Jubilee
Celebrations.^^ Not long after this Patterson
resigned from Turon Shire Council, leaving the
district to take up a position as engineer with
Weddin Shire Council and later with Demondrille
Shire Council. In retirement, Patterson lived with
one of his four sons, A.W Patterson, who ran a
newsagency in Orange. His first wife died in 1920
and he remarried in 1927. Alfred Patterson died
in Sydney on 17 July 1932, a pioneer landscape
gardener of the state’s Central West.^*^

Spencer Harvey gardens in Bathurst and is author

of The Story of Machattie Park ( 2006 ).

1. Sydney Morninp Herald 19 July 1932; Bathurst Times^
20 July 1932.

2. C.W. SI Oman, The History of Bathurst^ Runciman Press,
place, 1994, pp.74-75.

3. Bathurst Times^ 14 April 1890.

4. Bathurst council minutes, 5 June 1890.

5. Bathurst council correspondence received, 19 June
1890.

6. S.W. Harvey, The Story of Machattie Pard Bathurst
Family History Research, 2006, p.42.

7. Gutteridge, Haskins, & Davey, Machattie Park
Management Plan, 1990.

8. Bathurst council minutes, 14 August 1890.

9. Report to Bathurst Council, 20 November 1890.

10. Bathurst Times^ 29 October 1897.

11. National Advocate^ 21 July 1899. It appears likely that
one of the original Huntingdon elms survives near the
Webb Gates in George Street.

12. Sloman op.cit. p.263; Sydney Morninp Herald^ 19 July

1932; Bathurst Times^ 20 July 1932.

\Z. Australian Technical Journal 31 October 1899.

14. Bathurst council minutes, February 1900.

15. Bathurst Daily Times^ 4 July 1902; 12 February 1903.
The state government did institute a massive irrigation
scheme the following year, not in the Central West, as
advocated by Patterson, but in the Riverina.

16. National Advocate^ 13 February 1905, 15 February
1905; see also Bathurst City Council correspondence, 16
May 1958. The plaque still remains affixed to the new
gates on the corner of George and Keppel Streets.

17. National Advocate^ 15 March 1907. Mr F. Campbell
was appointed Supervisor of Works and Henry Lynch
as Head Gardener. Turon Shire later amalgamated with
Evans Shire, which in 2004 amalgamated with Bathurst
City Council to form Bathurst Regional Council.

18. Sloman, op. cit., p.54.

19.1bid,p.l39.

20. Sydney Morninp Herald^ 19 July 1932; Bathurst Times^
20 July 1932.

14

Australian Garden History V0I.19 N0.3 Nov/Dec 2007/Jan 2008

'Return to Lutyens': Florence Taylor
and the folly of architecture

Richard Aitken

Books can occasionally reveal more than covers promise, and this is certainly the case with
Sydney architect Florence Taylor’s copy of Weaver’s Lutyens Houses and Gardens.

The bookseller sighed apologetically. ‘It isn’t
much of a copy I’m afraid’, (or so he thought). I
meanwhile cheerfully parted with the cost of an
average meal (in our Olympic city) for the copy
of Sir Lawrence Weaver’s book Lutyens Houses
and Gardens {Country Life, London, 1921). It
was, in truth, in that rather shabby condition that
booksellers euphemistically describe as a ‘reading
copy’. Many pages had been cut out and then
reaffixed — some were still detached — and the
pages were sprinkled with pencilled annotations.
My interest had been sparked, however, by the
ownership inscription of Florence M. Taylor
(in ink on the front endpaper) as much as the
Lutyens/Jekyll/mj-6>//. (It takes skill to keep this
sort of excitement to one’s self until after the
transaction.)

Florence Mary Taylor (nee Parsons) (1879-1969)
was born in Bedminster, Bristol, England, and
aged 4 migrated with her family to Sydney.

Her father died when she was 19 and to support
her two sisters Florence turned to draughting.
Articled to architect Edmund Carton, she
attended night-classes at Sydney Technical
School — one of very few females at this time — and
after five years completed her course (1900-04).
Well regarded for her design skills and the first
qualified female architect in Australia, she was
nominated in 1907 for membership of the
Institute of Architects of New South Wales but
claims to have been ‘blackballed’. In that year
Elorence married George Augustine Taylor
(1872-1928), a Sydney-born artist, inventor,
and craftworker who had also trained at Sydney
Technical College. The pair formed a publishing
company, which embraced titles in the fields of
architecture, building construction, engineering,
radio, and music. Pre-eminent was Building
(1907-72), edited, until his death, by George
Taylor, a role then taken on by his wife. Town

Australian Garden History V0I.19 N0.3 Nov/Dec 2007/Jan 2008

15

planning was a major concern of the Taylors, and
through their journals they were strong and vocal
advocates. Gardening, although not expressly
covered by Building^ was treated nonetheless as
an integral part of design, both at a domestic level
and on a broader public scale. Tree planting was
keenly promoted.

Gardening was a key feature of Weaver’s book
of Lutyens. Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens (1869-
1944) was by 1921 in an unassailable position
at the top of England’s architectural profession.

His works had long been prominently featured
by the lavish magazine Country Life — of which
Weaver was the architectural editor — and his
engagement as architect for New Delhi (from
1912) signalled an increasing commitment to
public projects. Weaver had previously produced
Houses and Gardens by E.L. Lutyens (1913) for
Country Life^ and the revised volume — now in
more modest octavo format — brought to an even
wider audience the earlier designs of Hestercombe,
Munstead Wood, Goddards, Little Thakeham,
Papillon Hall, Lambay Castle, and Lolly Larm.
Many had gardens planned and planted in
conjunction with Gertude Jekyll (1843-1932).

The first of the pencilled annotations to strike
me were numerous instances of ‘Lrom Lutyens’,
and one reading ‘Return to Lutyens’. Were
Llorence and George really on such intimate
terms with Edwin that he would loan the books,
only to have them partially mutilated by these
crass antipodeans.^ The loan theory seemed to
be blown out of the water by such pencilled
comments as ‘The rounded corners — a mere
outlet for the spending of money’ (churlishly
referring to entrance front of Lutyens’ 1899
masterpiece, Tigbourne Court), or ‘Striving after
effect — Paucity of conception’ (slighting the
loggia at Marshcourt, a Lutyens tour de for ee
in the Tudor manner). The Deanery, built at
Sonning in 1900-01 for Country Life propnctor:
Edward Hudson (for whom Lutyens also altered
Lindisfarne Castle), with a Jekyll/Lutyens garden
‘producing effects of singular richness’ came in
for strident criticism. The ground floor plan is
annotated ‘Lrightfully cut about / no one w[oul]d
put up with these levels here / look at the trouble
& expense in thick walls’, and of the exposed roof
framing — ^where Weaver lauds the ‘lavish hand’ of
its creator — the pencilled hand quips ‘Ponderously
heavy’. Most damning of all is a photograph of the
dramatic tank and loggia at Lolly Larm, Berkshire
(1912), annotated with magnificent sang-froid:
‘Lrightful waste of brickw[or]k — a real arch[itec]t
c[oul]d not be guilty of such a thing’. The
comments were presumably intended for private
consumption only. Or so 1 thought.

The Taylors were incessant proselytisers for
architecture in Australia, broadcasting their
strident opinions through the various magazines in
their stable. Initially, for instance, they were great
supporters of Lederal Capital designers Marion
Mahony and Walter Burley Griffin although
almost overnight the adulation turned to enmity.
Opinions were freely and frankly expressed, and so
1 took my cue from some of the annotations dated
1925 to see what the Taylors were writing about
Lutyens in Building. Suddenly the link between
the book and the journal became clear. During
that year the Taylors republished several of the
Country Life images with critical comment, and
the pencilled annotations were merely a reminder
to retrieve the loose pages from the printer and
return them to the Lutyens book in Llorence
Taylor’s collection.

Only recently have 1 been made aware of
scholarship surrounding the Taylors, and in
particular a forthcoming biography of Llorence
Taylor by Robert Lreestone and Bronwyn Hanna.
In this, the authors touch on the differing roles

TIGBOURNE COURT.

Dcslgnecf bjf Sir Edwin Lutyens,

I From "LtjijciiA Houses anil Gafdtcis.".i
The Iln^JisIl in? KuppesiNi <4 iil

lixliitfcroTc, so pPFliipH h doubiflil rLii?e for
Hie [X>rthniaTS chilij to tiic na.rcnl'#

proftin; lion ; hut may England’s artiliircciure
□ever be jnilpivl bj tliB! The mislei of tlic
cablea jiEid ihc Flic tury- like chimneyf- '.vhicli
dcinihare the struehLre have ‘bceri inspired hj-

Ihc Gnlhic, bbi llie rnuikd irclied! openiikj^, lhe

-rlasaic pilUrs of tlie parrli and Elir -winrlDiv
h«sl.t hav e — !f1kOLr[tj ]u^e — 'nn-hiik^ Id da
wilt] the fes:, .nnrl the verirsl rhild studcral Ot
^rt MihDols VVObiil kii-DU |b-E1(r Elian ta
1^5' and liiix Elir Eiyn in n rnmpFiKiEiDTi -kvliich
pOjiiKihly be bnil>.irn|^ h^iE certainl}’- eOulJ
Dill Ini[lit'u1]v hr eall'^d The Sdw--

Booih gables.' ate jlP iFrpEn.iin;;t feature, ay afr
al&u (be cFLppltd pudinKnt^ to Elie

i:]|i]iincy sUc-k-s- oi hrik upend all idti'
^t proftorEinjk hal^nre. OTJsfiiialiiy

■ihnvvsi j|- 1^^ , 15 ^ nuTterial^ and in It'eid’tiCM'jjr
Colour iFii-n dfEiffri, Same of the key:? ir?
FOiiilld -ifclic: and couneN in I hr irrni-^- wall
^r-c of loudinH til^ :ini.l euiiir ol life quoins-
aTe of ljtii.'li

16

Australian Garden History V0I.19 N0.3 Nov/Dec 2007/Jan 2008

The University of Melbourne

Little Thakeham at Stomngton, West Sussex, is widely recognised as one of the finest small houses designed by Edwin Lutyens — perhaps It was
spared Florence Taylors criticism by its elegant linking of house and garden, and its subtle borrowing from well-loved English architectural elements.

that George and Florence Taylor played in editing
and publishing Buildin 0 ^ and it is likely from what
is known of her character, that the annotations
and published opinions belonged to Florence. This
seems conclusively proved by the links between
Taylor’s copy of Lutyens and her attributed
writing in Building.

In January 1925 the magazine published a portrait
of Lutyens announcing that the great man was
‘now on his way to Australia’. Accompanying an
adjoining image of ‘Imperial Delhi’, however, the
criticism started to pour forth:

Probably if an Australian architect designed
a city and buildin^fs such as these, we would
be fearless enou^jh to call them a motley
eon^lomeration; but they belong to a man with a
£ireat name in the architeetural world ... When
Sir Edwin adheres to pure Classic or Gothic ideals
his designs are remarkable fine; it is only when he
enters upon seeessionist ideals that he “falls from
^raee” as illustrations in his book “Lutyen’s [sie]
Houses and Gardens” would indicate.

During the ensuing months the trickle turned
to a torrent as design after design was subject to
intense scrutiny (and Lutyens was not alone in
this). His additions to Folly Farm were blasted
while the design of Tigbourne Court came in for
a fearful pasting (somewhat apologetically prefaced
‘it is doubtful taste for the Dominion child to
criticise the parent’s production, but ...’). Garden

features on the whole escaped this opprobrium
but the pressure seemed to be mounting. Finally
in October 1925 Florence Taylor signed her
name to an eight-page article entitled ‘Freak
Architecture: its contempt for sentimental
association and correct principles’. In this the
pencilled annotations in Weaver’s book and the
published comments can be reconciled. Amidst
a withering critique of the cream of the world’s
designers — including the Griffins (whose Newman
College was illustrated and castigated) — Florence
again singled out Lutyens. Speaking of his London
Cenotaph (whose proportions she had derided
in the pencilled comments) she let fly: ‘Then
again, there are other architects with personality
enough to not only influence their clients but
to convince the general public and win it over
to their views, such as Sir Edwin Lutyens, who
can plank [sie^ a mass of stone, meaningless in
its idea and ungraceful in its outline in the heart
of London.’ At least this did not qualify for tag
‘Weird Architecture’ which she used when sinking
the slipper into another design.

One wonders what Lutyens would have made of it
all. Sadly his visit to Australia — like that proposed
some years earlier by eminent British town planner
Thomas Mawson — never eventuated. What a
delicious thought, though, of Edwin meeting
Florence for a harbour- side drink to go the
distance on ‘secessionist ideals’ versus ‘sentimental
association’.

Australian Garden History V0I.19 N0.3 Nov/Dec 2007/Jan 2008

17

Photo: Richard Aitken

For the bookshelf

Anne Wilkinson, The Passion for Pelargoniums: how they
found their place in the garden, Sutton, London, 2007
(ISBN 978 0 750 94428 I): hardback RRP $49.95

While there exist extensive references to camellias,
roses, liliums, narcissus, and numerous other
decorative plants there is comparatively little on
zonal pelargoniums (aka geraniums) and regal
pelargoniums (pelargoniums). These two hardy
stalwarts have long been considered main- stay
examples of the earliest colonial Australian gardens
and almost every garden style since. Yet they
have also been dogged with the widespread view
that they are too common to be considered the
subject of much detailed historic research. Anne
Wilkinson’s book The Passion for Pelargoniums
changes that perception and adds historic hybrids
to the extensive survey of species found in Diana
Miller’s Pelargoniums (1996) and van der Walt
and Ward-Hillhort’s three-volume monograph
Pelargoniums of Southern Afriea (1977-88).

Wilkinson adds a considerable amount of
biographical and historical information concerning
the plant hunters, botanists, amateur enthusiasts,
and professional growers that enriches the basic
background facts presented by the authors of the
previous two botanical and descriptive works.

While the coverage is essentially drawn from
British sources there is mention of contemporary
French and German activity and personalities.
Although more sketchy towards the current era
there is acknowledgement given to two Australian
contributors to the development of geraniums and
pelargoniums, Ted Both and Rob Swinbourne. This
is pleasing, but perhaps not as thorough as it might
have been. For instance. Ten Bode is one Australian
breeder of regal pelargoniums who comes to mind.
His plants were almost exclusively exported to the
USA and introduced by greenhouses to the large
market there. His contribution, while perhaps not
so wide ranging as that of Both, was nonetheless
international and significant. That small niggle
aside The Passion for Pelargoniums is a good
survey of the development, hybridisation, and
introduction of that genus. Strongest in the earlier
years of discovery and collecting the book tapers off
somewhat as the whole field became more complex
and international in the tewntieth century. But for
most gardener-historians the earliest records are the
most interesting, and later information can, in many
instances, be supplemented adequately by local
resources and research.

The presentation of the book is not up to the mark
for a modern publication. There are too many
black and white illustrations. Where these are taken

‘Mrs Pollock': an old favourite

from engravings and early photographs black and
white is an acceptable format. However, this is not
the case where brilliant hand- coloured nineteenth-
century plates and examples of early colour printing
are used. While it may seem selfish to expect such
treatment it is the standard for today and the book
is diminished for the want of an understanding of
this on the part of the designer and production
team.

A modern summation of a neglected field of garden
history.

Trevor Nottle

Jessie Sheeler, The Garden at Bomarzo: a Renaissance
riddle, Frances Lincoln, London, 2007 (ISBN 978 0
71 I 22673 9): hardback RRP $59.95

Those fortunate enough to have visited the
Saero Boseo of Pier Francesco ‘Vicino’ Orsini at
Bomarzo will know the fascination this strange
garden exerts. No less so for those who know it
only from illustrations in books — the garden of
monsters, grotesques, mausolea, temples, theatres,
and inscriptions exerts a profound and compelling
influence. The reality and the imagery strike the

18

Australian Garden History V0I.19 N0.3 Nov/Dec 2007/Jan 2008

Botanic Gardens of Adelaide

same sparks. What is this holy garden about. ^ What
does the structures and inscriptions mean.^

Two earlier references have investigated the Sacro
Bos CO at Bormarzo in detail. Claudia Lazzaro set
the garden in the context of Italian Renaissance
gardens as the principal example of Mannerist
ideas influencing garden design in The Italian
Renaissance Garden (1990) while Margaretta
Darnall and Mark Weil produced a detailed and
scholarly examination of Bomarzo against a broader
literary and artistic canvas in a dedicated edition
of the Journal of Garden History (1984). Since
then the garden has undergone a major restoration
programme and a significant development as a
touristic site. Abandoned by the Orsini family when
Vicino died in 1584 the garden lay derelict and
visited by very few until it was filmed by Salvador
Dali and local art critic Mario Praz in 1949. Visits
and study of the garden have grown from there.
Sheeler’s book provides and much needed link
between the two earlier studies. It gives more
detail than Lazzaro provides and makes accessible
the material discussed in academic complexity by
Darnall and Weil.

The garden is a mystery and mysterious. It gives
rise to many questions, as its creator intended it
to. The problem for modern visitors is that few
have the cultural insight or knowledge of the
symbolism and meaning embedded in the strange
landscape they encounter. Interpretation is needed
and Sheeler strikes an elegant balance between the
interplay of academic, political, religious, sexual,
philosophical, mythological, and mundane aspects
of the composition. Perhaps most crucially of all
Sheeler establishes the Sacro Bosco as the means by
which a war- and world-weary man unburdened his
heart of personal and political disappointments and
intellectual disillusionment.

A highly satisfying book of great interest — a
window into another, distant age.

Trevor Nottle

Robert freestone, Designing Australia’s Cities: culture,
commerce and the city beautiful, 1900-1930, UNSW
Press/Routledge, Sydney, 2007 (ISBN 978 0 868
4081 I 8): paperback RRP $49.95

The planning history of our cities is one that has
received surprisingly little popular attention. While
the catalogue abounds in detailed studies — ^Adelaide
and Canberra between them account for the bulk
of this literature — national overviews, much less
international contexts, are thin on the ground. In
this rarefied atmosphere, Robert Freestone has
been a generous contributor. His earlier Model
Communities: the garden city movement in

Australia (1989) provided a comprehensive
overview of urban planning in the period
now under review (1900-30) and Designing
Australians Cities now provides a complementary
overlay.

By its very nature, the city beautiful went to work
on the heart of the metropolis, seeking to pump
life into central business districts slowed by the
1890s depression and still choking from piecemeal
colonial developments. Or, so the city- beautiful
proselytizers argued. As Freestone points out in his
introduction, the ideals of the city beautiful derived
from both sides of the Atlantic, and had as their
aim a fusion of beauty and utility. The portmanteau
of ‘beautility’ — coined in the early 1900s by
American architect- designer Arnold Brunner —
made its journey to the antipodes through a mix of
professional designers and hard-nosed agents, the
‘culture and commerce’ of the subtitle.

Freestone’s wide-ranging research and cogent
analysis provide a meticulous picture of this
predominantly design-based style of town planning.
Until now, the major source on this style — ^William
H. Wilson’s The City Beautiful Movement
(1989) — has presented a dominant North American
narrative, but Freestone’s Australian focus allows
British and continental European sources to redress
an imbalance. This is not to downplay North
American influence on Australia at this time, which
was crucial. Instead, the author is free to use the
Australian situation as an international case study
in the global transfer and development of town
planning ideas. Freestone also sees a distinctively
local contribution in the nurture of ‘a nationally
distinctive strain of early planning advocacy’.

Designing Australians Cities sits midway between
traditional scholarly erudition and the new ‘lively
and accessible’ mode favoured by some publishers.
This book is about ideas and outcomes, and for an
expansive subject these warrant a generous design
and layout. A book just over half as thick but double
the page size may have permitted the integration for
which I yearned, and at the same time quadrupled
the market for this commendable new addition to
the literature on Australian history. Still, the market
forces which dictate such decisions were also at the
core of the city beautiful movement. Our town
planning has often been an uneasy balance between
civic ambitions and commercial realities, and this
book will hopefully stimulate renewed debate of
past successes and failures.

Richard Aitken

A much expanded version of this review is

published in a special art and architecture edition of

Australian Book Review (November 2007).

Australian Garden History V0I.19 N0.3 Nov/Dec 2007/Jan 2008

19

Just released

Christmas always brings a flurry of new ^ardenin^ titles. Here we present a seleetion of reeent books,
many of whieh will be reviewed at greater length in eoming issues. Enjoy the bumper erop.

Australian Gardens: National Trust Desk Diary 2008,
Women’s Committee of the National Trust of
Australia (Victoria), East Melbourne, 2007 (ISBN 978
I 876 47361 7): hardback RRP $25 (also available
spiral bound)

No surprises here. Sensible arrangement of week-
to-an-opening spreads juxtaposed with evocative
images of significant Australian gardens by some
of Australia’s best-known photographers.

Daniel Bunce, Manual of Practical Gardening (Hobart
Town, 1838), facsimile edition. Friends of Geelong
Botanic Gardens Inc., Geelong, 2007 (ISBN 978 0 646
47975 0): paperback RRP $31.40 (includes postage)

This pioneering colonial guide (and that of
Thomas Shepherd — see below) should be on
the bookshelves of every AGHS member. Now
available at modest cost from the Geelong Friends
(PO Box 235, Geelong, Vic., 3220). Full review
in a future issue.

Holly Kerr Forsyth, The Constant Gardener,

The Miegunyah Press, Carlton,Vic., 2007 (ISBN 978 0
522 85432 9): hardback RRP $75

Without even opening this breezy romp from
journalist Holly Kerr Forsyth the book seems
preternaturally destined for the Christmas
stocking. Owing a debt to Stephanie Alexander’s
Cookes Companion, historical snippets blend with
recipes, cultural notes, garden design advice,
and myriad colour photographs by the author.
Available through the AGHS at discounted price
($56 plus postage and handling).

Jeanette Hoorn, Australian Pastoral: the making of a
white landscape, Fremantle Press, Fremantle, 2007
(ISBN 978 I 920 73154 0): paperback RRP $29.95

Using paintings in the pastoral tradition and ideas
surrounding the culture of land in Australia, the
author provides a refreshing new look at the often
uneasy relationship of people and the land through
the lens of pastoralism.

Landscape Gardening in Australia:Thomas Shepherd,
Mulini Press, Canberra, 2006 (ISBN 0 949 91098 8)
paperback RRP $40

Facsimile reprint of this classic Australian text from
1836 with an introduction by publisher Victor
Crittenden (PO Box 82, Jamison Centre, ACT,
2614). Full review in a future issue.

John Macarthur, The Picturesque: architecture, disgust
and other irregularities, Routledge, London, 2007
(ISBN 978 I 844 7201 I 8): paperback RRP $65 (also
available in hardback)

A highly original look at this eighteenth- century
concept by Australian academic John Macarthur
from The University of Queensland. Full review in
a future issue.

Charles Quest-Ritson, Gardens of Europe: a traveller’s
guide. Bloomings Books, Burnley,Vic., 2007 (ISBN 978
I 876 47330 3): hardback RRP $89.95

Guide to over 600 gardens including brief
historical notes on each garden and in the national
or regional introductions which provide the
structure of this weighty volume. Well-known
British author, now resident in France, and an
Australian publisher.

Tim Richardson, The Arcadian Friends: inventing the
English landscape garden. Bantam Press, London, 2007
(ISBN 978 0 593 05273 0): hardback RRP $65

A lively look at eighteenth-century English
garden-making told through a fascinating
interlinked biographical narrative. If you liked
Jenny Uglow’s The Lunar Men (2002) you’ll
enjoy this even more.

David Symon & Manfred Jusatis, Sturt Pea: a most
splendid plant. Board of the Botanic Gardens and
State Herbarium, Adelaide, 2007 (ISBN 0 9775 6082
I): hardback RRP $55 (also available in paperback and
deluxe quarter-bound leather)

The story of an iconic South Australian plant told
through its history and discovery, naming, biology,
cultivation, and marketing, as well as fascinating
cultural history of its use in art, design, legend and
literature. Sumptuously illustrated and definitive.

John Walter, SGAP: the story of Arthur Swaby and the
Society for Growing Australian P/ants, Australian Plants
Society (SGAP Victoria) Inc., Hawthorn, Vic., 2007
(ISBN 978 0 909 83062 5): paperback RRP $29.95

A meticulously researched account of SGAP
including notes on pioneering Australian plant
enthusiasts active before the Society’s formation in
1956. Full review in a forthcoming issue. Contact
SGAP (PO Box 357, Hawthorn, Vic.) for sales
enquiries.

20

Australian Garden History V0I.19 N0.3 Nov/Dec 2007/Jan 2008

Tottanda

Journal editorship

Due to pressure of her burgeoning media
commitments Genevieve Jacobs has recendy
resigned as editor of Australian Garden History.
Until other arrangements are put in place, the
journal will be edited by members of the AGHS
National Management Committee and Editorial
Advisory Committee. All correspondence
regarding the journal should be directed to the
AGHS office. In future issues we can look forward
to features on Bolobek, Adelaide Park Lands, and
nationalism in Australian gardens.

Links: www.gardenhistorysociety.org.au

Amazon Water Lily blooms again

The new Amazon Waterlily Pavilion at Adelaide
Botanic Garden was opened in early November
by South Australian premier Mike Rann. The
striking new glasshouse, designed by Adelaide-
based Flightpath Architects, retains the basin of
Richard Schomburgk’s original Victoria House
(1868). To celebrate the opening of the new
house, an exhibition featuring the giant Amazon
waterlily ( Victoria amazonica) is open until early
2008 in the adjacent (and soon-to-be-restored)
Museum of Economic Botany. A highlight is the
ABG’s copy of Hooker and Fitch’s extremely rare
and spectacular Victoria Re^ia, or illustrations of
the Royal Water-Lily (London, 1851), recently
acquired through a generous benefactor. Welcome
news also that Pauline Payne’s long-awaited
biography of Richard Schomburgk — ^whose older

brother Richard was instrumental in bringing
viable seed of the lily from British Guiana
(Guyana) to England — is soon to be published
by Jeffcott Press (enquiries to 59 Jeffcott Street,
North Adelaide, 5006).

Links: www.botanicgardens.sa.gov.au

Cultural and historical geographies of
the arboretum

Our sister society, the UK- based Garden History
Society, has arboretums (or arboreta if you wish)
as the theme of its latest issue of Garden History
(supplementary issue 2 of volume 35: 2007).
AGHS NMC member Max Bourke’s article
‘Trees on trial: economic arboreta in Australia’
sits alongside contributions from the likes of
Stephen Daniels and Brent Elliott. This special
issue — ^which has many resonances for Australian
readers and researchers — originated in the School
of Geography at the University of Nottingham
where the guest editors are based, and in papers
presented to a conference hosted by the Linnaean
Society of London, held in September 2006.

Links: www.gardenhistorysociety.org

Jottanda invokes a splendid archaic word meaning
a collection of jottings, first used in a gardening
context by Irish civil engineer, geologist, and
seismologist Robert Mallet in his ‘Horticultural
Jottanda of a recent Continental Tour’, published in
Loudon’s Gardener’s Magazine in February 1833.

Adelaide Botanic Garden’s new Amazon Waterlily Pavilion, opened In November 2007

Australian Garden History V0I.19 N0.3 Nov/Dec 2007/Jan 2008

21

Photograph: Richard Aitken

Diary dates

NOVEMBER 2007

Sunday 25
ACT /Monaro/Riverina
Bus Field Trip noon to 4.15pm:
Charles Weston’s landscapes
established in Canberra 1913-1926
with Dr John Gray. The field trip
will commence at 12 noon sharp
at the intersection of Banks and
Brown Streets, Yarralumla adjacent
to Westbourne Woods arboretum
(Royal Canberra Golf Course). There
is ample space there to park cars.
Bookings essential. Members $20,
Non-members $25 BOOKINGS:
exper tco@ozemail . com . au.

Sunday 25

ACT/Monaro/Riverina, Yarralumla
Branch end of year drinks. 4.30pm.
Cafe, Yarralumla Gallery & Oaks
Brasserie. Members free, non-members
$5. Bookings appreciated for catering
purposes. CONTACT: Judy Pearce
exper tco@ozemial . com . au.

Sunday 25

Queensland, Lower Beechmont
Christmas Break-up. Meet at 10am at
200 Freemans Rd, Lower Beechmont
(telephone (07) 5533 1409). AGHS
will provide tea, coffee, sugar, and
milk. Bring lunch items to share.

Cost: Members: $10. Guests: $15
CONTACT: Gill Jorgensen by 20
November, (07) 3341 3933 or
j orgenkg@picknowl . com . au .

Sunday 25

Southern Highlands, Wildes
Meadow

Wildes Meadow Garden Ramble,

10am. A visit to 3 gardens in Wildes
Meadow, Linden Brae a 20 year
old country garden which is rarely
opened. Dragon Farm which is a
plantswoman’s garden surrounding
a lOOyr old farm house and Pat
Bowley’s Birchbeck an amazing garden
of rare and unusual plants in Cleary’s
Lane. The first garden to be visited
will Birchbeck where morning tea will
be served followed by Linden Brae
and then a BYO picnic at Dragon
Farm. Cost $30 Members $35 non
members. CONTACT: Sue Trudeau,
strudeau@trudeau. com . au

DECEMBER 2007

Tuesday 4
Victoria, Parkville
Celebratory drinks in support of a
fund to commemorate Nina Crone.
6-8pm at University College, College
Crescent (Melway 2B,C3). Donation
$45 per person.

RSVP Kathy Wright
(03) 9596 2041

Sunday 9
Sydney, Wahroonga
Christmas Party, 25 Lucinda Avenue,
Wahroonga, 5 -7pm. Cost: $15/20
non-members, includes refreshments.
Bookings essential. Bookings &
enquiries: CONTACT: Stuart Read,
(02) 9873 8554 (w)

(02) 9326 9468 (h)
stuart.read@heritage.nsw.gov.au or
Stuartl962@bigpond.com.au

Sunday 9

South Australia, Stirling
Christmas Drinks at Beechwood,
Stirling 5pm. Donation is $10 per
person. Drinks will be provided.
Members are asked to bring a plate
of Christmas fare. CONTACT:

Lyn Hillier (08) 8333 1329 by
5 December

Wednesday 12
Victoria, Princes Hill
Christmas celebration at the North
Carlton Railway Neighbourhood
House, 20 Solly Avenue, Princes
Hill (Melway 29, Hll) Please bring
a photograph of a garden ornament
to display. BYO picnic (gas BBQ,
and seating available) CONTACT:
Pamela Jellie 9836 1881 or email
pdjellie@hotmail.com.

Friday 14

Southern Highlands, Moss Vale
Christmas Party and Botanic Art
Exhibition Opening. The launch
of our inaugural AGHS Botanic
Art Exhibition will this year be
combined with our branch Christmas
party We have 18 botanical artists
exhibiting and world renowned artist
Susannah Blaxill will be opening the
exhibition. CONTACT Sue Trudeau,
strudeau@trudeau .com . au

EEBRUARY 2008

Thursday 14
Victoria, Clifton Hill
February Walk and Talk at 6.00pm.
Meet at picnic rotunda at Quarries
Park, Clifton H il l. Enter park at
junction of Wright and Dwyer Streets
(Melway 44 Cl) and follow path to
the right. BYO picnic and comfortable
walking shoes. A member of the Merri
Creek Management Committee will
speak about the landscaping and
re -vegetation programs that have
successfully created a wildlife corridor
along the creek and so enhanced the
recreational amenity of the area. After
the talk we will walk from Quarries
Park along the Merri Creek trail for
about half an hour to look at the
newly created wetlands and plantings
of indigenous species. Friends and
family welcome. CONTACT: Bronwen
Merrett email: bronm@bigpond.net.au.

APRIL/MAY 2008

2008 Autumn Tour to the Monaro
region of New South Wales led by
Trisha Dixon, 27 April - 4 May
2008. Accommodation Novotel Lake
Crackenback. ENQUIRES: AGHS
Office.

OCTOBER 2008

29th Annual National AGHS
Conference, Southern Highlands
NSW. 10-12 October 2008.
ENQUIRIES: AGHS Office

Recherche Bay

Members will be delighted that
Dick and Pip Smith have made an
additional gift of $1.37 million
towards land acquisition at
Recherche Bay. This gift concludes
the fund raising campaign for
purchase of the reserve. Dick
Smith emphasised that the
appeal was a ‘testimony to what
passionate people can do to leave
a positive impact on our unique
Tasmanian environment and the
lives of all Australians.’

22

Australian Garden History V0I.19 N0.3 Nov/Dec 2007/Jan 2008

Conference review

Meandering about the Murray: 28th
Annual National Conference

Taking as its theme ‘Interpreting the landscape
of the Albury region’, the Society’s 28th Annual
National Conference was a popular one. Booked
out early, almost 200 people participated and
despite problems finding gardens to visit (due to
the drought), a very full program over four days
was undertaken. The first day and a half was as
usual given over to lectures.

Dr Bruce Pennay took us from the Wiradjuri’s
river ‘Millewa’, to Hume and Hovell’s ‘Hume
River’, and on to Charles Sturt’s ‘Murray River’.
He described the waves of public projects which
have shaped the city from river crossings, road,
rail, a potential Federal city, to its part of the
process of post World War II migration and on to
the most recent attempt to get people to live in
inland Australia, the Albury- Wodonga project. An
interesting setting of the local scene was told with
knowledgeable humour. (See story on page 6.)

Dr Daniel Connell described the journey of
Australians from colonial times to the present in
trying to find a way to be better river managers.

In particular he focussed on the central part the
Murray- Darling River management played in the
early debates surrounding Federation and beyond.
He pointed out while the present situation was
cause for great concern and effort, we should
look back to some of the serious and intelligent
attempts to do it better, tried at the end of the

nineteenth century and in the early part of the
twentieth century.

Glen Johnson took us along the river via the
arboreal habitat formed by the corridor of river
red gums. He showed us the extraordinary
diversity of life these magnificent trees support
and the way in which they fit into the ecosystems
of dry Australia by being green corridors on
the meandering rivers often separating the wet
from the arid interior. John Hawker next led
us through the ‘treescape’ of introduced species
which now gives the texture of a cultural landscape
rather than a natural landscape, and so led us into
‘gardening of the environment’.

Dr Richard Groves introduced us to differences
in the concepts of ‘introduced plants’, ‘naturalised
plants’, and finally for a small but very significant
subset of both to become ‘weeds’. He did this by
tracing the trajectory of largely garden escapes,
from the Macarthurs at Camden Park and African
Olive, to Mrs Patterson (with two ‘t’s) — ^who may
receive more blame than she should for the spread
of Rivetina violets — to Saint Edna Walling and
her Baby’s Tears, which perhaps should have been
called by its NSW name. Bony Tipped Fleabane,
which Richard suggested might have limited its use!

John Dwyer took us on the journey of the
Hypericum (St John’s wort) invasion. From Bright
and its racecourse it appears to have travelled,
largely by road, to now cover some 900,000
hectares of Victoria despite attempts at biological

Exploring Woomorgama. The view from the courtyard at Woomargama looks over a ha- ha to the paddocks beyond.

Australian Garden History V0I.19 N0.3 Nov/Dec 2007/Jan 2008

23

Photo: Brian Voce

Paterson’s Curse (Echium plantagineum), now a major weed, was a topic of conference lectures and featured prominently in the landscape of
the Albury area.

and legal controls. He showed us how ‘effective’
legal proclamation had been (not much!) and
made us pause to think whether natural remedies
are worth the price! The speed of this plant’s
spread is an object lesson is what can happen when
plants jump the garden fence.

Dr Sarah Ryan and Kay Johnston took different
journeys to come to the same conclusion. They
looked at the way we have shaped both nature and
gardens to arrive at a point where we have to work
with nature probably for our own survival and
the survival of the rest of the ecosystems which
we cherish. Prue Smith, who knows the gardens
of the region well, gave us a sense of faith in the
future by reminding us that historic gardens of
the future are still being created in Albury and its
surrounds today.

Trisha Dixon related the connections between
writers and a sense of this place. She urged people
to read the work of Rolf Boldrewood (who lived
in Albury) Robbery under Arms^ and as her talk
unfolded she made the links with as diverse a
range of writers as Barcroft Boake, Elyne Mitchell,

Patrick White, and Banjo Patterson — an eclectic
mix indeed.

Dr David Dunstan presented a story of
heroic efforts to start a new industry in a new
environment beaten in the end of by the vine

Mission Statement

The Australian Garden History Soeiety is the leader in concern for and conservation of significant cultural
landscapes and historic gardens through committed, relevant and sustainable action.

HISTORY

SOCIETY

Phone: 03 9650 5043 ■ Tollfree: 1800 678 446 ■ www.gardenhistorysociety.org.au

AUSTRALIAN

GARDEN

louse. Phylloxera^ and changes in the tariff system.
Sadly the decay of even the physical remnants is
rapid and David’s book. Better than Pommard
(new edition out next year) might be the only
record of it in years to come.

And finally we had an excellent overview from most
of the gardeners whose places we visited over the
next two and a half days. The best conclusion I can
use, however, is provided by the beautiful words of
that great Australian poet, Bruce Dawe, who was
commissioned to write this piece a few months ago
for the opening of the new Albury Library:

Here in this place both pout and future meet
And in the living prevent join their power,

And, av in every union thatv replete.

There io a richnevv which tranvcendv the hour.

And makes it memorable for years to coine
So time will add its own encomium . . .

Since each of us, they say, is a living river
This tribute to our lives and to our land
Will serve to unite the gifted and the giver
And reinforce what we all understand:

That arts and learning merit our devotion
Just as our rivers feed both land and ocean.

Max Bourke AM

Photo: Brian Voce